Tech and strategy synergy

[Peasant Phill]

I just had my first naval wars. At first I was evenly matched but lost one on one. This meant the enemy clan gained clear naval superiority and moved in for the kill a turn later. Luck, however was on my side as I just finished researching flaming arrows which completely shifted the balance of power in my advantage. The single most compelling example was a victory of a single bow ship against another bow ship and 2 trade ships.

In short getting fire arrows quickly is a first step in setting oneself up as a naval power.

Are their other (early) technologies that are a must when persueing a certain strategy?

[Major Robert Dump]

Other than Chosokabe, I dunno who has it, but getting a luber supply for cheaper ships is a must for naval superiority on that side of the map. I think you need an investment of around 4000 total, but it pays itself off quickly and adds to the trade. If you turn that spot into a nanban quarter, the nanban trade ships will cost only 1217. Its also handy for spamming small bow ships as escorts/meatshields for your expensive ships, with the intent of losing them in battles but still damaging the enemy. The AI hardly, if even at all, repairs its own ship

Fire arrows and the other early archer tech (the one that gives field camp and extra ammo) are also a must for archer-heavy armies, particularly on sieges, you can outlast the attacker or defenders archers, and span fire arrows. On attacker on siege, I will sometimes stop and let fire arrows recharge so I get another volly if the timer is permitting. I know of two archer accuracy bonus locations on the left side of the map. I put a horse facility on those locations for CA w/ bonus

I would say early expansion would want the diplomacy tree, and anyone going christian long before realm divide may consider it, as well as the happiness (sumo) line.

My big dilemma was always figuring out on my own how to upgrade my troop production areas. Its a shame to have a cavalry facility w/ bonuses w/o bow cav, but already having a yari a sword and possibly a field camp means the castle would have to be upgraded and upgraded.

[TinCow]

For me, the tech that gives +50% arrows is the most important. I have not found any other tech that comes close to that one in importance. No matter what faction you play or what kind of armies you use, you'll always find yourself in long sieges where 10 to 15 more volleys of arrows would make a huge difference.

[spicykorean]

For me, the tech that gives +50% arrows is the most important. I have not found any other tech that comes close to that one in importance. No matter what faction you play or what kind of armies you use, you'll always find yourself in long sieges where 10 to 15 more volleys of arrows would make a huge difference.

Iirc, this tech also increases replenishment rate by 5%.

[andrewt]

Iirc, this tech also increases replenishment rate by 5%.

Yes, Heaven and Earth gives +50% arrows, +5% replenishment rate and allows the construction of encampments.

Personally, I find the farm upgrades to be the most useful in the early game. I'm using mostly ashigaru armies anyway and the food surplus later snowballs. The factions I've played so far can produce at least one type of samurai unit in their capital as well so I don't feel like researching all those stuff while I can't afford too many. I research the economy tree until the tech that gave terrace farming and +5% tax rate before switching to military research.

[Jacobin]

Yes and encampments also let you build armouries without needing either any additional tech or resources - and with ashigaru armies that armour bonus is really useful.

[Rothe]

Heaven and Earth is just a very important tech for any strategy.

Also, I tend to just research towards farms in the beginning. Then I go for my clan's specific tech (Chosokabe = bows etc.).
Later I experiment a bit with different routes of tech, but I find the diplomacy bonuses always to be a good investment - they allow me to keep an ally during RD. I then try to pick a reasonably strong ally that has a key location either behind my enemies, or in between blocking some of them off but leaving a narrow corridor of provinces for assault/defence for me.

[RedKnight]

In the early game for me, the choice is between Way of the Bow (Fire Arrows) or Equal Fields (Terrace Farming). After these two, Heaven and Earth is high priority.

Then, one must decide if they are going guns or butter - investing heavily in Bushido, or perhaps rushing for Chinindo (Land Consolidation and can maximize crafts provinces).

In my current (10th) solo campaign, Hard Dom Chosokabe, I am trying being Christian. I deliberately stopped and waited decades before RD... for once I got all the way to Shih, the ultimate Bushido tech, before calling out the dogs of war. This was by choosing ONLY spears, arrows, and cavalry (neglecting swords, navy, and seige). But on the Chi side, I had really only gotten to Chinindo. Still, I had 1.5 million before I moved my 5 uber armies out. (Does anyone ever invest heavily in Seige? Except for the fun of it?)

[maestro]

I nearly always beeline for Calligraphy at higher difficulty levels. The massive boost to both tax income (assuming you've spammed the trade points this is worth a LOT of money) and diplomatic relations is worth ignoring all other techs until you get there :D

[andrewt]

In the early game for me, the choice is between Way of the Bow (Fire Arrows) or Equal Fields (Terrace Farming). After these two, Heaven and Earth is high priority.

Then, one must decide if they are going guns or butter - investing heavily in Bushido, or perhaps rushing for Chinindo (Land Consolidation and can maximize crafts provinces).

In my current (10th) solo campaign, Hard Dom Chosokabe, I am trying being Christian. I deliberately stopped and waited decades before RD... for once I got all the way to Shih, the ultimate Bushido tech, before calling out the dogs of war. This was by choosing ONLY spears, arrows, and cavalry (neglecting swords, navy, and seige). But on the Chi side, I had really only gotten to Chinindo. Still, I had 1.5 million before I moved my 5 uber armies out. (Does anyone ever invest heavily in Seige? Except for the fun of it?)

I've found trebuchets to be terrible in my new current campaign as Date. First of all, they slow down your armies on the campaign map because of their limited movement. With their limited ammo, I've found out that even with the +25 accuracy from crafts, they can barely destroy two arrow towers each before running out of ammo. Even against a 2000 strong army confined to the smallest castle, a unit will only get 50-150 kills before running out of ammo and it's pretty random.

[RedKnight]

I've found trebuchets to be terrible in my new current campaign as Date.
Hi Andrewt,

I tried European Cannons once - but only for a few turns.

Just like you, I thought they'd be great for beseiging castles. But actually they mainly make a mess of the facings (= destruction = unhappiness = must pay to repair). I think I killed maybe 10 enemy archers, and yeah they slow your stack down.

I don't think I'd even want to try them in an open field battle; I'm sure that with their inaccuracy, they'll cheerily shoot through your own guys, trying to hit enemies meleeing them.

I suppose they would be good for taking out fort arrow-towers when beseiging. But we have all learned cannon-less ways to beseige castles without great injury from fort towers; they don't make or break a decision to seige. Meanwhile, archers are a lot more flexible than cannons.

So much for cannons on land. At sea, though, it's an entirely different story.